Council losing skilled staff
A struggle to attract and maintain skilled staff has forced the South Waikato District Council to offer flexible working arrangements.
Over a quarter of South Waikato District Council job vacancies this year have resulted from staff starting and then leaving within the last two years. From January to May the council advertised 27 jobs, seven are completely new but eight were filled between 2017-18 only to become vacant again this year.
That includes a building control officer, pool duty supervisor, environmental health manager, digital marketing specialist/ marketing manager officer, project manager, rates officer, wastewater technician and a water technician.
The number of council jobs advertised this year is also already higher than the two previous years which saw 22 and 15 respectively for the entire year. Nine jobs are currently out for applications.
Human resources manager Christine Beach admitted some skilled roles were ‘‘proving difficult to fill’’ but said the council was not alone in its struggle.
‘‘Following a recent meeting of human resource professionals across the region, difficulties filling some roles is not unique to our organisation,’’ she said. ‘‘These roles are largely specialised and difficulties in filling them is due to shortage of trained specialists.’’
Beach said the council has adopted a flexible working arrangement policy in an attempt to overcome the issue.
‘‘Some examples of flexible working arrangements that can be formalised include working one day a week from home, working hours different to when we are open, nineday fortnight which is the same number of hours just spread over nine days not ten, and term-time working,’’ she said.
‘‘The formal policy was only adopted about a month ago, so early days for any formal applications. It is fair to say that staff were very receptive during the internal engagement phase, making valuable suggestions and offering some great solutions.’’
She said the jump in vacancies was also due to restructuring.
‘‘The number is higher for two reasons, firstly an organisational review of our assets, corporate and community groups and secondly some roles had been identified as required through the Long Term Plan,’’ she said.
‘‘Some of these new roles were filled by internal staff, which then meant that we had to fill those vacancies.’’
Beach said despite the struggle, the number of people applying for council jobs was however increasing.
‘‘We received 384 applications in 2017, 410 in 2018, and so far this calendar year we have received 476 applications,’’ she said. Only 48 were deemed suitable to be shortlisted for interviews.
The council is currently advertising for a digital marketing specialist, community programme coordinator, community development planner, community support assistant, Tokoroa town centre coordinator, Tokoroa customer service team leader, Putaruru Service Centre team leader, Putaruru customer service officer and a property asset officer.